Looking at such strange maps in class. Today, we were put in pairs. My partner and I had decided to write on the “Beatus World Map”. At first glance it looked like a boring map until you look at it with an interested eye.The map became interesting at once after I started noticing its small distinct qualities. Some of its distinctive features were fishes that were used as the border, vertical lines that were used to represent the mediterranean sea and many more. Out of all of the many features of the map, the most intriguing one was the small rectangle located at almost the top center; this small rectangle had two human-like structures with a slender animal structure laying beside them. Initially, my working partner had thought that the two human-like structures were a hybrid of a human and a fish, he also thought the slender animal structure was either a snake or a dragon. We had later found out that the human-like structures were in fact humans and the slender creature was a snake. After realizing it was a depiction of the Garden of Eden we immediately found more interesting things. Finding out that small rectangle was the “Garden Of Eden” I immediately figured out that the snake was not  laying on the ground but rather was on a tree that had brightly colored fruits that were bright but yet still escaped us.  The picture shows the people being Adam and Eve to be covering or hiding their genitals meaning they had eaten the fruit from the serpent and lost all innocence.

Humans

Fishes as the border

snake

nile river

red sea

islands

Garden of Eden

Bold colors

Mountain-like structures

red fruits(maybe apple)